Natural History Wanderings

The Pulse reported

On a steep volcanic cliff on Robinson Crusoe Island — 420 miles off the coast of Chile — a single tree clings to the rock face, held in place by ropes. It is the last known wild individual of Dendroseris neriifolia, a species that was still relatively common in the late 19th century.

Until recently, no seeds from this entire genus had ever been stored in a seed bank. That gap in conservation history left one of the world’s rarest trees with almost no safety net.

Read more at Only one wild tree of its kind still survives, growing on a remote volcanic cliff, and the way scientists are saving it had never been done before in history